Ebook Research methods in kinesiology and the health sciences: Part 2

8

Qualitative
Research

“Qualitative research is pragmatic, interpretive, and grounded in the lived experiences of
people.”—Marshall and Rossman, Designing Qualitative Research.1

Chapter Outline
Qualitative Research Traditions
Naturalistic Inquiry
Ethnography
Narrative Inquiry
Interpretive Inquiry
Phenomenology
Heuristic Inquiry
Critical Inquiry
Orientational Inquiry
Section Summary
Getting Started
Research Design: Sample Selection and Size

Creating a Trustworthy Research Design
Entry into the Research Site: Explaining
the Purpose of Your Research
Data Collection
Data Collection Timeline
Data Collection Methods
Observations
Interview and Focus Groups
Photo Diary

Data Analysis
Themes
Open, Axial, and Selective Coding

Chapter Objectives
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
1. Explain five characteristics of qualitative research.
2. Describe qualitative research traditions and perspectives.
3. Discuss four ways to increase the trustworthiness of qualitative research.
4. Identify data sampling and collection methods that match the research purpose.
5. Describe how qualitative research questions and designs evolve during the data collection
and analysis process.
6. Identify data analysis techniques that lead to description and interpretation of phenomena
that answer the research question.

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Part  I I   Understanding Different Types of Research

n Qualitative research studies examine social situations that occur at a particular place and time.
Researchers place people’s lived experiences at the center of the research process. Although it is possible to enumerate or count things that people do or the number of people who participate, qualitative
research permits the researcher to capture the richness of people’s lives, their emotions, and their personal interpretations of what they see, hear, and feel. Statistical research designs often examine large,
randomly selected samples to discern trends, means, and differences in group characteristics. These
macrodesigns focus on generalizing findings from a sample to a larger population. Conversely, qualitative researchers work at the microlevel, using labor-intensive observations and interview techniques
to develop in-depth understandings of the ways participants understand daily events in their world.

There are five characteristics of qualitative research that can help you to distinguish these research
studies from other research designs.2 First, qualitative research is typically conducted in natural settings. Researchers travel to the research setting or situation instead of bringing the research subjects
to their laboratory. The researcher’s role in qualitative research is to learn
about the participants’ world. The natural setting is considered the primary
Context  The social, historical,
context in which all social interactions occur. The term context describes
political, and temporal setting in
the social, historical, political, and temporal setting in which participants
which participants work, interact,
work, interact, and live.
and live. In qualitative research,
Second, qualitative researchers often employ many different data collecthe context or setting is the
tion methods and techniques to delve deeply into participants’ lives and to
framework for understanding
verify the trustworthiness of their findings. In this chapter, we will discuss
how people relate, interact, and
a few of these data collection methods, such as observation, interview,
interpret their world
and photo diary. Third, qualitative researchers study the complex settings
in which people live their lives. Researchers do not attempt to control the
setting or to limit or reduce the complexity. Instead, researchers employ
research designs and techniques to capture complexity and work to communicate how phenomena blend to create participants’ lived experiences.
Phenomenon (singular)/
In qualitative research, the term p
­ henomenon describes any fact, circumPhenomena (plural) Any
fact, circumstance or experience
stance, or experience that is apparent to the senses and that can be scientifithat is apparent to the senses
cally described or appraised.
and that can be scientifically
Fourth, qualitative research designs are fluid and flexible, unfolding

described or appraised
as the researcher gains deeper insights into the complexity of the context.
Researchers expect the design to become more complex as they identify
key informants and key contexts within the research setting. As the situaThemes  Organizing concepts,
tion evolves, researchers identify and follow themes that emerge as indiconstructs, or patterns used
viduals interact within particular contexts. They consider each situation to
to structure qualitative data.
be unique, perhaps one of a kind. If the situation occurs once, we know that
Themes may begin as a
it exists and work to understand how these phenomena emerge and evolve.
researcher‘s intuitive hunch
Finally, qualitative researchers’ primary emphasis is on interpretation of
and are then documented
the lived experiences of their participants. Interpretive qualitative research,
through observation,
however, is more than a descriptive record of what occurred; it reflects a
interview, or photography as
detailed interpretation of the what, when, why, and how of the situation as
organizing concepts. Themes
observed by the researcher and interpreted by participants.
typically represent abstract
From these characteristics, we can deduce several assumptions that
conceptualizations that can
guide qualitative research.2 First, qualitative researchers believe that social
become key focal points when
interactions are both holistic and complex. It is not adequate to record a
communicating results.
sentence without understanding the situation in which it was expressed,
including what events preceded it and the conversations and consequences
that followed. Second, because the situation is real and evolving while the researcher is present, it is

important to remain open to new possibilities. Certainly, qualitative researchers learn quickly to go
with the flow. Since the situation is developing each day, it is impossible for researchers (or thesis and

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dissertation committee members) to anticipate every aspect of the research design prior to entering the
field. Instead, the qualitative researcher develops the general timeline and selects the initial setting and
participant sample, u­ nderstanding that additional participants, settings, and research questions may be
added as the researcher’s understanding of the context deepens. Additionally, because the researchers’
understandings are developing quickly, data analysis cannot wait until the researcher leaves the field
but begins almost immediately to inform the design and alert the researcher to developing themes.
A third assumption of qualitative researchers is that their research perSubjective/Subjectivity The
spective is subjective. The researcher is uniquely equipped with motivation,
personal perspective of the
expertise, and skills to make sense of complex environments. The human
researcher that influences the
brain functions more effectively to observe and analyze unique situations
selection of the research topic,
than most computers. Often qualitative researchers serve as both the data
research questions and methods.
collection “instrument” and the data analysis “software.” Thus, their perIt is the responsibility of the
sonal histories, expertise, and previous experiences will influence the topic
qualitative researcher to discuss

they choose to investigate, the site and participants they select to examine,
these influences and to explain
and their interpretations of what they have learned. In other words, like all
their expertise and experience in
researchers, they make research and methodology decisions based on their
the research setting.
own biographies and social identities. They understand that their personal
histories shape their research questions and their ­interpretation and presentation of findings. Therefore, a responsibility of qualitative researchers is to foreground their biographies and their personal and professional connections with the research topic, participants, and setting.
They explain these relationships clearly in research reports so the reader may, in turn, interpret and
understand the researcher’s perspectives. Further, qualitative researchers learn and practice techniques
to increase their awareness of these influencing factors and use methods of triangulation, dependability, confirmability, and transferability to establish the trustworthiness and authenticity of the research
findings. We will discuss these concepts in detail later in the chapter.
Finally, qualitative researchers work both deductively and inductively to develop a deeper understanding of the situations and people in the research setting. At times, they work to examine how a
social theory can be used to explain and predict individual relationships and the consequences of
decisions that people make in crisis situations or in the daily workplace (deductive). At other times,
researchers may enter the setting with minimal understandings of the participants or the situation. They
spend an extended time period looking, listening, questioning, and reflecting to generate new theory
that is grounded in the events and interactions of the people and places they have visited (induction/
grounded theory). In each situation, however, the researcher’s focus is on first capturing a rich description of the events and social interactions and then interpreting these from the participants’ perspectives.
Qualitative researchers ask a range of research questions that represent many different philosophical and theoretical perspectives. In this chapter, we will first explore three qualitative traditions: naturalistic, interpretive, and critical. Next, we will map the preliminary steps in conducting a qualitative
research study, creating a trustworthy research design, selecting the research site and participants, and
entering the site. We then will discuss data collection and analysis techniques used to better understand
and interpret social settings. Qualitative research traditions, methods, and protocols have developed
extensively over the last four decades, becoming a central research paradigm for social scientists, educators, and researchers who seeks in-depth answers to social questions. Currently, it is a well-respected
research method that has proven its value in understanding complex social settings.

Qualitative Research Traditions
Qualitative research provides a comprehensive approach to studying social settings and phenomena.
Because social scientists have different purposes and assumptions, it is not surprising to find different
philosophical streams of thought guiding different research categories. I will group these into three

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Part  I I   Understanding Different Types of Research

major categories of inquiry, naturalistic, interpretive, and critical, and then include a few examples of
specific research topics and questions within each category of inquiry.

Naturalistic Inquiry
Although all categories or genres of qualitative research are conducted in
naturalistic settings, scholars who assume an explicitly naturalistic stance
Research conducted in existing
attempt to preserve the natural setting of the school, community agency,
social settings. Researchers
hospital, fitness club, or camp with as little disturbance to the daily activistrive to preserve the existing
ties as possible. This is a significant challenge because most participants
context and minimize reactions
react when an outsider enters their organization or community. Naturalistic
or changes caused by their
researchers, such as ethnographers and narrative researchers, understand
presence.
that their initial presence in a setting will attract attention and comment.
They work initially to communicate a reason or purpose for their presence
and then, once participant curiosity is satisfied, attempt to blend inconspicuously into the setting.
Additionally, they plan to spend an extensive time period in the setting, making friends and meeting

key informants, participating in events of the specific community, and inducing participants to accept
them and to act naturally in their presence. Scholars in two qualitative genres, ethnography and narrative inquiry, focus extensively on capturing and interpreting natural settings.

Naturalistic Inquiry 

Ethnography
Ethnography is the earliest distinct tradition3 in qualitative research. It was derived from anthropology
and qualitative approaches to sociology. Anthropologists first employed these techniques as they sought
to understand how people collectively form societies and maintain their
Culture  Commonly held ideas,
culture. Thus, the study of culture is central to all ethnographies. A culture
customs, skills, and daily actions
is defined as the commonly held ideas, customs, skills, and daily actions
of a group of individuals
of a group of individuals. Often, people clustered together to preserve and
experience common beliefs, traits, or ways of understanding the world.
Ethnographers investigating schools, businesses, and communities ask research questions such as “What
is the culture of this group of people?” Ethnographers enter most cultural settings as outsiders who come
to learn and document the beliefs, actions, events, and contexts of particular cultures. These settings can
be as exotic as Margaret Mead’s cultural anthropology of the Samoans in the 1920s to current educational
scholars’ studies of urban high school physical education programs.
Ethnographers typically study groups, communities, organizations, or social movements using
prolonged engagement in the setting.1 They may choose to participate with community members in
daily activities, removing themselves briefly to a private place to record field notes and reflect on their
experiences. Analyses of qualitative ethnographic field notes result in the identification of patterns in
participant interactions, attributing meaning to ceremonies, rituals, and artifacts. Today, ethnographies
take many forms from those that examine the culture of schools, hospitals, fitness facilities, and laboratories to investigations of interactions on the Internet such as Facebook (virtual ethnographies) and
spontaneous public gatherings such as “flash mobs” (public ethnographies). Autoethnographers rely
on their personal experiences within a culture to provide insight into the culture, situation, or events
they are monitoring.3 Critical ethnographers examine marginalized cultures with the purpose of raising

individual or public awareness of discrimination.

Narrative Inquiry
Narrative ethnographers convey and interpret participants’ stories of significant life events.
Often, participants have lived in turbulent times, such as a war, or taught in schools during the

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i­ mplementation of a controversial new law, such as Brown vs. the Board of Education that i­ ntegrated
black students into formerly white schools. Teachers and students’ stories of these historically significant events are useful in enhancing our current understanding of the event from the personal
perspectives of those who struggled to create new cultural communities. Narrative researchers might
ask research questions such as “What does this narrative or story tell us about this person or their
world?” or “How can this individual’s narrative be interpreted to illuminate the life and culture of
this group of people?”
Narrative inquiry also can take the form of life histories in which the researcher may visit and
interview a key informant many times over a lengthy time period. A
Key Informant  An individual
key informant is an individual who possesses unique information or has
who possesses unique
lived through a special event and is willing to share their information and
information or has lived through
experiences with the researcher. Interviews are conducted over weeks or
a special event and is willing to

months providing respondents an opportunity to read and edit interview
share his or her information and
transcripts and reflect on these events. This process deepens their own
experiences with the researcher
understandings and interpretations of the outcomes and helps them to consider the event’s impact on their life. Currently, narrative life histories are
being collected from World War II veterans and black scientists who serve as role models and whose
contributions provide roadmaps for new generations. These data cannot be collected with a paper and
pencil survey or questionnaire. Instead, the richness of experience as captured on digital audio and
video recorders communicates how these events and experiences changed participants’ lives and contributed to the evolution of particular cultures.

Interpretive Inquiry
Interpretive inquiry evolved from ethnographies as researchers placed
Interpretive Inquiry 
Qualitative research that
an even greater emphasis on the relevance and meaning that participants
examines participant‘s
ascribed to life events and experiences. Although many people experiperspectives and interpretations
ence the same event within the same culture, each person makes sense of
of life events and experiences
his or her experiences in different ways. Interpretive scholars attempt to
construct specific individuals’ interpretations to compare ­differences in
perspectives within common experiences. Phenomenology and heuristic inquiry are forms of qualitative research that place the individual’s experiences at the center of the research study.

Phenomenology
Phenomenologists seek to understand the very nature of the experience—what makes a phenomenon,
event, or experience what it is. Practical applications in research explore individuals’ meanings and
interpretations of their lived experiences and how they perceive, describe, judge, and remember it and
how they talk to others about this experience or event.3 Phenomenological researchers collect several
extensive interviews from individuals who have experienced the phenomenon of interest. The focus
of the analysis is on identifying the essence of the experience and how the individual perceives and

interprets it. Research questions include “What are the meaning, structure, and essence of the lived
experience for this person or group of people?”
Phenomenologists might focus on individuals’ experiences as second language learners in schools
or the experiences of a physical therapist working with Native American populations. Each phenomenological account begins with a description of the “turn” or a rationale for the research, for example,
what turned or attracted the researcher to the topic of interest. Thus, the researcher’s personal history
becomes part of the story and facilitates the search for the essence of interpretation. As the story continues, the researcher’s experiences become entwined with those of participants, forming a new, rich,
and more compelling story.

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Heuristic Inquiry
Interpretive research can take many forms in addition to phenomenology. For example, heuristic
inquiry explores the researcher’s personal experiences with a phenomenon and weaves it together with
other individuals’ experiences with the same phenomenon. The purpose is not specifically to compare
the experiences, although this often is part of the exploration; instead, the focus is on the creation of
shared meanings that deepen and extend the individuals’ unique perspectives. Research questions
include “What is my experience of this phenomenon and how can I better understand my experience
by understanding others’ experiences and interpretations?”3

Critical Inquiry
Researchers within the third broad category of qualitative research,
critical inquiry, approach their research topics with a clearly articulated
conducted to increase people‘s

mission or political agenda. Critical researchers conduct research to increase
awareness of social injustices and
others’ awareness of social injustices and to encourage both participants and
to encourage both participants
future readers of the research findings to become committed to correcting
and future readers to commit to
the wrongs revealed in their research. Some qualitative researchers conduct
social justice and change
critical ethnographies to examine the culture of marginalized or underserved
groups. Critical scholars often position their research from an orientational
perspective. In other words, they study issues that affect groups of individuals because of their gender,
race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or some life circumstance (poverty, imprisonment, discrimination).

Critical Inquiry Research

Orientational Inquiry
Orientational researchers assume a position of political advocacy with the goal of increasing awareness, commitment, and social change. They study topics, participants, and settings that reflect social
injustices and frame their research questions to evoke an emotional reaction from the reader and, at
times, from the participants themselves. Orientational researchers may approach their research from
many perspectives, such as feminist, Marxist, Freudian, or capitalist theories. Feminist researchers, for
instance, may seek to reveal and emphasize the centrality of gender in social relationships and societal
processes. Feminist researchers use the lenses of social justice to value women’s perspectives as a way
of raising consciousness and enhancing women’s roles as agents of social change. Research questions
often involve the exploration of women’s histories and culture as they impact and are impacted by
politics (power structures) and economics. A feminist research study might explore questions such as
“What are the barriers that prevent girls from participating on boys’ athletic teams?”
Critical scholars examine topics associated with racism and ethnicity with the purpose of social
change. Detailed studies of racist treatment and injustices are conducted both to increase awareness
of these events and to simultaneously deconstruct the dominant assumptions and behaviors that contribute to injustice. Queer theory examines prejudices and discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Researchers may question “What are the consequences when lesbian and gay athletes choose to reveal

their sexual orientation/lifestyles to other team members?”
The purpose of critical inquiry often is to deconstruct the dominant social perspective and to (re)
construct a more socially just and inclusive position. The focus of this research genre, however, is
not just to study and understand the phenomenon but to critique and change society. Researchers may
ask, “What are the dominant social positions that result in policies that foster and promote exclusion?” These critical researchers have come full circle from the purported objective stance of more
traditional forms of research to use the inquiry process and research findings to advocate for social
justice and change.

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Section Summary
Table 8.1 provides a summary of the qualitative traditions discussed in this section. It is important to be
aware of the comprehensive nature of qualitative research traditions and genres as they are reflected in
researchers’ diverse philosophical and theoretical positions. Remember that all qualitative researchers
study the context or situation that creates and shapes the phenomenon of interest. The context is central
to defining and distinguishing the characteristics of all social phenomena. Researchers spend extensive
Table 8 .1  Key Elements of Qualitative Research Traditions
Tradition

Genre

Description

Research Question

Studies of culture

“What is the culture of this group
of people?”

Ethnography

Studies of groups, communities,
organizations, or social
movements using long-term
immersion in the setting1

“How do individuals within this
community come together around
a set of shared beliefs and ideals?”

Narrative

Studies of participants’ in-depth
stories about significant life
events

“What does this narrative or story
tell us about this person or their
world?”
“How can this individual’s narrative
be interpreted to illuminate the
life and culture of this group of

people?”

Studies of the relevance and
meaning that participants
ascribe to life events and
experiences

“How did this event influence these
participants’ perspectives?”

Phenomenology

Studies of the nature or essence
of experience

“What are the meaning, structure,
and essence of the lived experience
for this person or group of
people?”

Heuristic

Studies of the researcher’s
and participants’ personal
experiences and shared
meanings

“What is my experience of this
phenomenon, and how can I better
understand my experience by

understanding other’s experiences
and interpretations?”3

Studies of marginalized or
underserved participants with
the goal of promoting social
justice

“What circumstances are
responsible for the social injustices
that have limited this individual’s
life?”

Orientational

Researchers assume a position
of political advocacy with the
goal of increasing awareness,
commitment, and action.

“How are community power
structures organized to foster
discrimination for this group of
people?”

Feminist, Marxist,
capitalist, racist, etc.

Study topics, participants,
and settings that reflect social

injustices
Frame research to deconstruct
dominant social perspectives
and evoke emotional reactions
and responses from readers and
at times from the participants
themselves

“How have these people been
oppressed within this community?”
“What are the consequences of
their exclusion for themselves
and other members of the
community?”

Naturalistic

Interpretive

Critical

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Part  I I   Understanding Different Types of Research

time periods embedded in a setting to understand the experiences more deeply. When researchers are
­investigating historical events, they may conduct an extensive series of interviews over a long time
period to capture participants’ unique perspectives and interpretations of their lived experiences.
Qualitative researchers reject the notion that a social context can or should be reduced to a few
­isolated variables. Instead, they explain that discovering the essence of most social phenomena
requires in-depth understandings of multiple, complex interactions that occur within natural settings. Efforts to remove, reduce, or distill the phenomenon from its context diminish or remove these
intricate relationships, invalidating the findings. These assumptions distinguish qualitative forms of
research from other research designs such as those associated with quasi-experimental, controlled, or
randomized research studies. Qualitative researchers seek rich, in-depth answers to complex social
problems. They argue that research methods should reflect and illuminate the complexity of the setting,
leading to comprehensive interpretations of social phenomena.

4 Check Your Understanding
1. List three major categories of qualitative research.
2. Explain five characteristics of qualitative research.
3. Discuss four assumptions of qualitative researchers.

Getting Started
Once you have selected a qualitative perspective and identified a research question, it is necessary to
decide how comprehensive your qualitative research study will be. Unlike other forms of research that
use a priori designs, qualitative studies evolve as researchers delve deeply into the context to answer
the research question. As a rule of thumb, it is better to think small when envisioning the scale or your
research. Rest assured that your study is likely to expand like exploding fireworks once you establish
yourself within the research setting. In this section, I will discuss elements of qualitative research
design, including sample selection and size, and suggestions to increase the trustworthiness of future
findings.

Research Design: Sample Selection and Size
Qualitative research focuses on the study of social phenomena within a particular context or setting.
Therefore, selection of the setting is a sampling decision of great importance both at the beginning

as you plan your research design and latter when you justify the trustworthiness of your findings.
Although it is efficient and easy to conduct your research in a place where you already have friends or
acquaintances who will let you observe and interview, it is more difficult later to explain why this was
the best site to answer your research question.
Instead, use a literature review to identify key factors or variables that appear to impact the setting
or participants that you are studying. For example, if your question is “What instructional strategies
and activities do middle school teachers use to keep students physically active in physical education?”
use your literature review to confirm that students in experienced, expert teachers’ classes exhibit
greater time on task. Based on this knowledge, you know how to select a “purposeful” sample of
expert, experienced teachers. National Board–certified physical educators must exhibit both characteristics, and thus, you would expect them to use effective strategies and activities to keep students
engaged in activity. If all teachers you select are effective at engaging students in physical activity during the physical education lesson, you can then document the specific instructional strategies used and
when, where, and how National Board–certified teachers use them to keep students physical active.

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Purposeful sampling is a key element of qualitative research designs. Because the goal is ­in-depth
understanding of a particular social setting, it is not useful to randomly sample schools. Likewise,
because you will spend an extensive amount of time collecting data at each research site, it is not realistic to use a large sample size. Some researchers conduct case studies in one school spending a year
or more in one site. Their findings are richly detailed, identifying a host of patterns and relationships
that a casual observer or a survey researcher might not discover. Other researchers ask questions that
are best answered by comparing the situation at several research sites. In these situations, purposefully
sampling sites and participants optimally suited to answer the research question is the foundation for
trustworthy research findings.

Other research questions require a comparison of some phenomenon across several research sites
or participant groups. If your research question is “To what extent do teachers keep students physically active in physical education?” you might purposefully sample three schools with diverse characteristics and cultures to provide a range of situations in which to examine this question. Perhaps
you know from the literature review that school location is important when examining student activity because the quality of school services often is impacted by the communities’ real estate tax base.
Schools located in affluent areas of the community may have a different school and physical activity
culture than schools that service students who live in poverty. If location is a significant factor in
your study, you may want to purposefully select schools that enroll students from families with high
or low incomes. Additionally, if physical activity is impacted by teacher experience, then you may
want to combine the location variable with teacher experience variables. In this case, you would purposefully seek opportunities to conduct your research in high- and low-income schools with teachers
who represent greater than 15 years and fewer than 5 years of teaching experience. Clearly, it would
not serve your purpose to select a random sample of schools and teachers because you are unlikely
to satisfy the conditions that previous research has indicated make a difference in student levels of
activity. You can answer your question more directly if you sample purposefully and selectively to
match the unique characteristics of participants and the setting with key variables or phenomena in
your research question.
While your research design might call for a specific number of sites, the selection of participants is also important. For example, if your research question is “How do personal trainers build
trust with their clients?” you could use a qualitative design to shadow personal trainers to observe
how they build trust. You may have contacted a site but found that only two of the seven personal
trainers were willing to work with you. However, once you have been collecting observation and
interview data with those two trainers at the fitness club for 3 weeks, all trainers relax and become
more welcoming. Additionally, your two trainers have talked with the others about your research,
and they now are willing to participate in your research. The personal recommendations from current participants in the site are an example of another form of sample described as “snowball” or
“chain” sampling.1 One contact leads to another, or a participant identifies a potential key informant
that you did not realize had useful information. This process can help you to selectively sample key
informants who can provide unique insights you are unable to gather from your original participants. A flexible, evolving qualitative research design permits snowball sampling of both research
sites and participants. The purpose of snowball sampling is access to the sites and participants most
influential in answering your research question.

Creating a Trustworthy Research Design
Trustworthiness is a reflection of the quality or soundness of the research
design. We want others to believe and trust our research findings to

be authentic and to accurately convey the essences of the phenomena
and the patterns and themes we have identified in the natural research
setting. Trustworthiness in qualitative research consists of credibility,

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Trustworthiness  The extent
to which your research findings
are believable. This perception
is based on design factors
associated with credibility,
confirmability and transferability
of qualitative research.

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Credibility  Research findings
that are believable and that
reflect an authentic and accurate
portrayal of the research setting
and themes

Prolonged Engagement The
commitment of the researcher
to spend an extended period of

time in the research setting
Triangulation  The use of
multiple data sources to confirm
or reject information. If a teacher
suggests that the parachute
lesson is the students‘ favorite,
then researchers need to check
with students to ask them
specifically which lessons in the
curriculum they like the best.
Additionally, the researcher should
observe the parachute lessons to
gain first hand evidence of the
lesson and to analyze the lessons
to determine why students might
select it as their favorite.

Transferability  The extent to
which the findings are useful to
others in similar situations.1 In
qualitative research the burden
of transferability exists with
the reader of the research, not
the researcher. Researchers,
however, can increase
opportunities for transfer by
providing rich descriptions of the
setting and participants.

d­ependability, confirmability, and transferability. Credibility involves

the ability of the researcher to present believable findings. In qualitative
studies, researchers plan to stay in a setting for a long period of time. This
process described as prolonged engagement increases the opportunity
for researches to observe many events, to interact with many individuals
under a variety of settings, and to both confirm and refute developing
themes.
Qualitative researchers also collect many different types of data (observational field notes, interview and focus groups, artifact) and can use these
various sources of information to confirm and challenge the data. This
process, described as triangulation, permits the researcher to examine
each finding from several different perspectives. Triangulation contributes
to the confirmability of the research. We have more confidence in the accuracy and authenticity of themes when the data can be confirmed by other
participants or through other data sources. The researcher can check her
findings with participants, described as member checks, to ensure she is
representing and interpreting the situation in a manner consistent with participants’ perspectives. The researcher also can discuss themes with peers
knowledgeable about the setting and familiar with qualitative research
procedures and protocols. During prolonged engagement, the researcher
also searches for alternative explanations and instances or cases in which
the situation occurs, but the meaning to participants is different. These
instances, described as negative cases, reflect inherent inconsistencies
found in most social settings and may add credibility to the description of
the natural setting.
The researcher’s commitment to collect rich, highly detailed, and
descriptive field notes makes the setting come alive for readers of
the research. Finally, although qualitative researchers are not focused
on statistical generalizability, they are concerned with transferability.
Transferability refers to the extent to which the findings are useful to
others in similar situations.1 Rich description of the research setting, participants, and themes assists other researchers to transfer findings from
the original study and apply them to their situation. Although the burden
of transferability exists with the reader, rather than the original researcher,
the researcher can facilitate this process through selective sampling and

the use of rich descriptions detailing each phenomenon in the research
setting.

Entry into the Research Site: Explaining the Purpose of Your
Research
Once your proposal and Institutional Review Board approval are in hand, you need to contact participants and gain access to the research site. Conceptualize and explain your research question and purpose
broadly. This allows you to begin your data collection by looking generally at the setting and allows
you to explore several alternatives before narrowing to specific research questions. For example, if your
research question is “What opportunities and barriers impact implementation of a new curriculum?”
you are free to ask questions about instructional time, lesson schedule, teacher philosophy, equipment,
and resources. You also can observe how “faithfully” teachers implement the curriculum as part of this

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larger question. When you first arrive, you may not be able to judge the opportunities and barriers that
impact this situation, but by phrasing your question broadly, you keep your options open.

4 Check Your Understanding
1. Discuss how sampling decisions will differ based on the type of research question you ask.
2. Explain two factors you need to consider when selecting a qualitative research sample.
3. Describe three characteristics of a trustworthy qualitative research design.

Data Collection

Collecting qualitative data requires the use of different techniques, with each having a unique purpose
and function. Developing a data collection timeline permits the qualitative researcher to plan the setting and time period in which to utilize different data collection methods. The timeline encourages the
researcher to work deliberately while providing a sense of urgency to complete each phase and move to
the next. The timeline also guides data collection by permitting the researcher to observe the setting, form
hunches, and gradually collect data to refute a hunch or support the development of significant themes.

Data Collection Timeline
A data collection timeline is a roadmap to help the researcher and the participants understand the
methods selected and the order in which they will be used. When observation is selected as a way
of understanding the research setting, the researcher can build several weeks of observation into the
beginning of the study to allow time to gradually become familiar with the setting. This also permits
the researcher to become more accepted by participants and to observe events, behaviors, reactions,
and consequences over an extended time period. As a researcher, you should avoid asking for participant explanations too early in the study because these can bias your perspectives, leading you to accept
the participants’ conclusions without searching for your own impressions. Participants often want to
influence the observer. They want you to understand and affirm their rationales and not question their
decisions. By observing without participants’ input for a period of time, you look harder for patterns
and begin developing your own explanations. Later, you can test these out by asking participants, as
there will be plenty of time to do this later. At the beginning of the study, it is important that the qualitative researcher consider many alternatives, gathering support in the natural context for those that appear
most logical. Table 8.2 presents a timeline for a research study in which answers to certain interview
questions can influence or bias the researcher.
Table 8.2  Timeline for Data Collection
Method

Week 1

Entry

X

Observation

Student/
client
interviews
Teacher/
trainer
interviews

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Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

X

X

X

Week 5

X

Week 6

Week 7

X

X

Week 8

Week 9

X

X

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Part  I I   Understanding Different Types of Research

Notice in the data collection timeline that, after gaining entry into the research site(s) during week 1
(introductions, informed consent, parental permissions, assent forms), the researcher plans to spend 3 full
weeks observing, collecting field note data, and forming her own opinions about the situation and the way
individuals interact. Once her themes are beginning to form, she is ready to interview student or client participants to gather their impressions and insights into the research question while simultaneously testing
her developing categories and themes. With these insights in mind, the researcher then returns to observations to view the research setting from these participants’ (biased) viewpoint. Finally, the researcher is
ready to talk with the teachers or trainers about their perspectives on the curriculum including their level
of fidelity or faithfulness of implementation. As she asks the interview questions, the respondents refocus
their attention from a more general topic (e.g., satisfaction with the program) to level of implementation.
Teachers who are implementing the curriculum explain how they use it in their lessons, while teachers
who are not using the curriculum are more likely to describe reasons why they do not like it and have
chosen not to implement it. We will discuss data collection methods in more detail in the next section.

Data Collection Methods
Qualitative researchers employ many different methods to collect different types of data. Each method
has advantages and disadvantages, and there is no perfect data collection tool. Therefore, it is critical
to understand each tool and match it to the requirements of the research
Data Sources Aspects
question. Data sources in qualitative research include the setting or context
within the context, including
described during the observation, the perspectives of the participants elicited
participants, behaviors, events,
during interviews, and written or virtual documents gathered from particiand artifacts, that can be
pants or online that provide insights into the mission and goals of the organiused as separate sources to
zation. Gathering data representing several different perspectives enables the
triangulate findings
researcher to check and cross-check findings contributing to data credibility
and triangulation. The researcher often begins the data collection by watching and listening to become familiar with the setting. Observation or field note data are collected early
in the study and then periodically throughout the data collection time period to better understand the
situation. Once the researcher has identified the key informants in the setting, he can arrange additional
interviews with individuals or groups to expand his understanding based on their perspectives.

Observations
Observations provide an opportunity for the researcher to learn about the research setting or context
where the social interactions occur. These include the physical characteristics of the building including the equipment, layout, size of the offices, and how much space is allocated to each component
of the program or agency. Observations also permit the researcher to watch how people interact and
note what they say, their voice tone and inflection, gestures, and facial expressions that accompany
conversations. Special Interest Box 8.1 includes an excerpt from observation data collected in a study
describing strategies teachers use to present content in high school physical education.4
The longer the researcher is in the setting, the more comfortable the participants become with his
presence. Although the first weeks often involve helpful introductions and explanations, as the observations continue, the researcher becomes a partner in the process and is allowed to hear and see more
of the actual daily interactions.
The observer’s role can range on a continuum from a nonparticipant to a participant in the research

setting. Nonparticipants often sit at the side of the room taking notes and observing without interacting
with participants during meetings, lessons, or appointments. Conversely, participants become involved
in many aspects of the setting, participating with children in physical education classes, working
out with clients, or asking questions in meetings. Depending on the level of researcher participation
and the qualitative research tradition selected, observation periods can assist researchers to fade into

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S p ec i a l I n terest B o x 8 . 1
Observation Data
Students are seated at desks in a classroom for the introduction to their personal fitness class.
Several students are talking quietly; two have their heads down on their desks. Two are flipping
pencils across the room. Ms. Davenport enters the classroom and gives the pencil shooters a
hard look. They quickly retrieve their pencils, tap their chests, and quietly say, “My bad.” Ms. D.
returns an assignment in which students recorded and graphed their heart rates during three
physical activities: rope jumping, basketball shooting, and volleyball blocking. She explains that
today they are going to calculate target heart rates so that students can regulate the intensity
of activity to avoid exhaustion and still receive health benefits from their workout. Students discuss their intensity for each task and comment on “how hard” they thought they were working.
Ms. D. emphasizes the importance of personalizing the experiences that no two people have to
feel the same or need to compare themselves with others. She distributes a worksheet with instructions and formulae needed to calculate target heart rates and then works through each using
Damien’s (one of the pencil shooters) age and scores from the previous class. Damien is attentive
and works through the calculations with the class. Ms. D. then encourages students to insert their
own scores and work through the problem independently. She walks around the room asking and

answering questions. All students are engaged in the math problems, although a few are struggling and appear to need help. Ms. D. assists and then asks other students to pair with the strugglers to help. When all have completed the assignment, she says, “Now we are going into the gym
and participate in three different activities. We will use the heart rate monitors to help you stay in
your target zones. I should not need to tell you to work harder or rest a bit. You will know based
on the upper and lower boundaries of your target heart rate zone that you just calculated. Set
your heart rate monitor and evaluate yourself accordingly. OK, please walk to the gym” (p.160).4

the background or become a trusted participant in the research setting. In Special Interest Box 8.2,
I described the evolving data collection protocols I used when collecting observation data in an
elementary physical education program.5
The data collected as field notes become an important backdrop to understand, confirm, and
­interpret data collected from other sources (interviews, artifacts). By triangulating field note, interview,

S p ec i a l I n terest B o x 8 . 2
I collected observation field note data for one full school day each week for 22 weeks during
the 2001–2002 school year, arriving 15 minutes before the first fifth-grade class and staying
until the last first-grade class was on the buses. I arrived the same day each week and, therefore, observed the same five classes (grades 1 to 5, n = ~215 students). Early in the observation period, I sat unobtrusively at the side of the gymnasium, moving as necessary to avoid
flying objects and moving children. During the third observation, Jill [teacher] invited me to
participate in the lesson, which I did, leaving my notebook on the side. This fortuitous event
seemed to help the children feel more comfortable with me, and they willingly chatted about
the activities and stations as we rotated together around the gym. In subsequent classes,
I typically spent parts of each class taking notes about class structure, content, and lesson
focus and the remaining time participating with the children. I reconstructed the events and
conversations that occurred during my participation time either prior to the beginning of the
next class or immediately on leaving the school in the afternoon. (p. 73–74)5

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Part  I I  Understanding Different Types of Research

and artifact data, the researcher can cross-check or compare data from one data source with others.
Data triangulation is critical to affirm the trustworthiness of your findings.

Interview and Focus Groups
Whereas field note data focus on participants’ observable behaviors and actions, interviews and focus
group data reveal their thoughts, expectations, emotions, and understandings. Data from carefully
structured interviews can add depth and meaning to participants’ actions and provide a rationale for
their behaviors. Often, data from interviews and focus groups are critical to developing a more comprehensive picture of the phenomenon of interest. In qualitative research traditions, such as phenomenology and narrative inquiry, that examine individuals’ lived experiences and interpretations of life
events, interviews are the primary data collection source. This is particularly true in life histories and
historical narratives where there is no longer an opportunity to observe critical events.
Interviews are typically conducted individually or with two or three participants who know each
other well. Interview data can be used to confirm or triangulate information the researcher already
possesses, to reveal new facts, or to help the researcher interpret data from observations or from other
interview responses. Special Interest Box 8.3 reports data from an interview with the two physical educators who created Scooter City, a unit integrating fitness and social responsibility, in their
gymnasium.5
Conversely, focus groups are typically conducted with groups of individuals who may or may not
know each other. A skilled focus group leader can structure questions to encourage participants to talk
with each other as well as the interviewer, respond to other focus group members’ comments, and
reveal information that is immediately confirmed or refuted by other focus group members. At times,
members can come to a deeper understanding of the problem or issue during a focus group. Critical
qualitative researchers use focus groups to guide group members to a new awareness of injustices in
their lives.6 They can build confidence and provide strategies to empower individuals to question and
ultimately initiate change in their situation.

S p ec i a l I n terest B o x 8 . 3
Jill and Pam described the Scooter City unit as a tremendous amount of preparatory work

with extensive student-related record keeping. They saw the content as an opportunity for
students to learn to make decisions and choices associated with physical activity and to practice and apply skills learned in other units during these guided choice tasks. Both teachers
also pointed out connections to other activities that students valued and found meaningful:
Pam: I have done Scooter City at my old school in conjunction with my bicycle safety
unit. The first year, I would have my Scooter city inside for a lesson, and then we would
take those rules we had learned about right-of-way, signaling and pedestrian safety
outside to our bicycle course.
Jill: I have done Scooter City in the past with less of a focus on riding the scooters and
with more about what skill and fitness activities were going on. For example, 1 year I
tried to tie it into fitness, like, I named a street Hamstring Highway and we did things
on Hamstring Highway that had to do with legs.
Pam: When Jill and I started teaming together, we made some necessary changes
because of the number of students in the double classes. We can build it even more next
year to have more “eye” content. Is that a word? I mean more eye-attracting appeal
that gets kids’ attention and holds them throughout the period. (p. 79)5

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Learning to conduct interviews is a skill that requires training and practice. Interview questions
are carefully planned and positioned in the interview to gain the respondent’s confidence and guide
them to reveal information that is critical to the researcher’s understanding and interpretation of
the study. Carefully planned interviews are choreographed in sections or stages, each with a unique
purpose. Think of the shape of normal curve that gradually rises through a series of topics to prepare the respondent for a series of crucial, perhaps even sensitive, questions and then using a series

of less emotional questions to gradually return to a more neutral tone, ending the interview on a
positive note. Figure 8.1 demonstrates this process, emphasizing stages that can be used to structure
interviews.4

Photo Diary

Question
Intimacy/Emotional/Difficulty

Although there are many methods and techniques that can be used effectively to collect qualitative
data, one of the most interesting involves asking participants to take photographs or videos of events
or experiences important to themselves and the researcher. For example, to understand what physical
activities children chose after school, researchers can give them a single use camera to take pictures
of themselves and their friends participating in these activities. As this data collection method has
become more sophisticated, researchers have asked participants to create videos of experiences they
have had either in schools or in other parts of their lives that reflect their understandings and lived
experiences with the phenomena of interest. Participants also can cut out pictures from magazines;
make scrapbooks, posters, and wikis; and write blogs to help researchers understand factors that
are most salient and meaningful in their lives. Qualitative researchers are utilizing a number of
novel and creative data collection approaches to interpretive research. These hold promise to provide additional insights into social interactions and institutions that are central to individual’s lived
experiences.

4

5
6

3
2

7

1

7b
Interview Stages

Stages of an Interview
1. Creating natural involvement
2. Encouraging conversational competence
3. Showing understanding
4. Getting facts and basic descriptions
5. Asking difficult questions
6. Toning down the emotional level
7. Closing while maintaining contact
7b. Informal follow-up

With your Partner
A. Imagine a future conversational partner
B. Draft/Preview your Main Questions (1-3)
C. Consider which of the 6 types of probes
you might use
D. Will you frame interview as a Tree
or a River?
E. Begin to organize and plan your interview
using protocols, checklists, or
outlines.

■■Figure 8.1  Interview stages.

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Part  I I   Understanding Different Types of Research

4 Check Your Understanding
1. How can a data collection timeline be used effectively to structure a qualitative research design?
2. List three methods to collect qualitative data.

Data Analysis
Qualitative data consist of rich descriptive field notes that paint a picture in the reader’s mind of the
setting and the social situation in which participants interact. Data also consist of interview and focus
group transcripts that provide rationales and explanations of participant behaviors and decisions and
assist researchers to understand phenomena from the participants’ perspectives. Today, data also can
consist of a variety of artifacts from lesson plans to client’s charts and workout records. Photo diaries,
videos, scrapbooks, and wikis are used to develop the qualitative picture of diverse social and situational interactions that occur surrounding the research question. Certainly, analyzing these diverse
data sources requires expertise in a variety of techniques and methods. Computer software such as
NVivo, MAXQDA, and ATLAS.ti can assist the researcher to organize, code, categorize, and retrieve
data. However, there is no substitute for an experienced data analyst who can identify and triangulate
complex themes across multiple data sources.

Themes
One objective of qualitative research is to identify comprehensive themes that assist the researcher
to make sense of the data. Themes are reoccurring structures that explain or describe participants’
thoughts, situational issues, and patterns in the context. Researchers construct themes by first becoming very familiar with the data and then coding and categorizing it to reflect coherent concepts or
constructs present in the situation.

Open, Axial, and Selective Coding
Coding  An increasingly complex
strategy to assign common
categories and properties to
textual and artifactual data.
Codes represent key words or
phrases that link concepts across
different data sources. Codes
facilitate triangulation and are
the foundation or the building
blocks for themes.

Coding can take many forms depending on the data type and format.
Usually, researchers begin by using a process described as open coding5
in which words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs are highlighted and
assigned a name that reflects the major topic discussed. For example, if
teachers are discussing their concerns that, “many urban students cannot play outside after school because of ­dangers in their ­neighborhood,”
analysts might code the phrase as “physical activity,” “after school,” and
“safety.” The computer software programs can be used to copy and store
the phrase in files for each of these three codes, permitting the analyst to
search and retrieve coded phrases across all data sources and place phrases
reflecting each code in a central file.
Open coding is descriptive. The codes represent salient behaviors or topics that a colleague or
anyone familiar with the data would be likely to understand and accept as a reasonable description.
Researchers begin the process of open coding very early in the data collection process, and each new
interview transcript or observational field note file is coded soon after the data are collected. Open coding involves the identification of categories and properties of each phenomenon. The coding process
influences the researcher’s perspective early in the data collection process. Being familiar with data
helps researchers realize when they are asking irrelevant q­ uestions or interviewing individuals who
simply do not possess or understand the situation adequately to inform the research question. Rather

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than waiting until the conclusion of the data collection and analysis process to realize these problems,
the qualitative researcher can respond quickly by changing the setting, selecting additional informants
to interview, and reshaping the research design to address his evolving understanding of the situation.
This flexibility could not be achieved without the qualitative assumption that the research design and
themes evolve and emerge within the research process. Each change requires justification and a clear
rationale, but ultimately the research question is better answered through this evolutionary approach
to data collection and analysis.
Axial coding occurs simultaneously with and following the opening coding process. Axial coding
seeks more abstract interpretations of descriptive open codes. Axial codes begin as hunches and, with
substantial support from multiple data sources, become themes that organize and make sense of complex cultures and settings. Most scholars agree that qualitative research themes emerge from the axial
coding process. Qualitative analysts examine data categories and properties and search for interpretive
explanations of lived experiences that are central to social research. Axial coding reveals themes that
are interpretive, not descriptive. Themes represent key understandings that motivate individuals to act
in certain ways or patterns that lead to particular consequences within the settings. Axial coding of
themes is often followed by selective coding in which researchers return to the research setting after
the axial coding process is completed to verify themes and seek new data to support these abstract
constructs. In selective coding, the researcher returns to his original theoretical framework and literature review to clarify and confirm themes that emerged during the study. This third coding level assists
the researcher to compare themes with those found in other research (review of literature) and to place
new findings within the existing body of knowledge on the topic.
With practice, each qualitative researcher develops protocols and ways of examining data for

descriptive codes and interpretive themes. The findings are always subjective and situationally situated
in a particular context. Qualitative researchers are not concerned with generalizability or objectivity.
Qualitative research emerges from a different paradigm that does not adhere to the rules of statistical
research designs. Instead, qualitative research offers scholars a different lens to examine a few research
sites in great detail. These labor-intensive research methods are critical for understanding and interpreting social interactions in ways that are grounded within a specific setting or situation.

4 Check Your Understanding
1. List three types of analysis techniques used to describe and interpret qualitative data.
2. How is qualitative research different from other types of research traditions?

Chapter Summary
■■

■■

■■

■■

Qualitative research is notable for its focus on complex, natural settings; the use of flexible,
evolving research designs; multiple data sources and methods; and an interpretive focus on
individual’s lived experiences.
Qualitative research is subjective. Because the researcher is the primary research instrument, it is
critical that she reveal her background, biases, and personal reasons for engaging in the research.
Qualitative researchers assume that social interactions are holistic and complex. Because social
systems are evolving, it is critical to remain open to new possibilities and to adjust the research
design as necessary. This may include adding or omitting settings or participants, increasing/
decreasing time in settings, and refocusing the research purpose and questions to emphasize
events or phenomena that are critical to participants and to reflect their perspectives.
Qualitative research forms or genres continue to evolve to reflect diverse sociological

and educational perspectives. These range from traditional ethnographic to sociocritical,
phenomenological, and hermeneutic.

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Part  I I   Understanding Different Types of Research
■■

■■
■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

Currently, most qualitative genres can be organized within naturalistic, interpretive, and critical
categories.
Researchers select the research genre based on the purpose and research questions.
Similar to all forms of research, qualitative research is evaluated based on criteria specific to
its characteristics and assumptions. Criteria for sample selection, data collection/analysis, and
trustworthiness require careful attention to research questions and protocols.

Triangulation (comparison of data from different sources) is one method used to establish
trustworthiness.
Data triangulation and trustworthiness are enhanced by attention to issues of credibility,
dependability, confirmability, and transferability.
Data analysis may include open (descriptive), axial (interpretive), and selective (literature/
theoretical) coding.
Qualitative research provides an in-depth look at social and cultural issues grounded within
a specific setting, time, and place. Qualitative research genres are particularly sensitive to
historical, political, social, and cultural phenomena, issues, events, and concerns.

References
1. Marshall C, Rossman GB. Designing Qualitative
Research, 5th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2011.
2. Rossman GB, Rallis SF. Learning in the Field: An
Introduction to Qualitative Research, 2nd ed. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage, 2003.
3. Patton MQ. Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods,
3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2002.

4. Ennis CD, McCauley MT. Creating urban classrooms
worthy of student trust. J Curr Stud 2002;34(2):149–172.
5. Ennis CD. Examining curricular coherence in an exemplary elementary school program. Res Q Exerc Sport
2008;79(1):71–84.
6. Rubin HJ, Rubin IS. Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of
Hearing Data, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2012.

Related Assignments
1. Select a topic of interest, and develop eight interview questions that follow the diagram in
Figure 8.1. Select a person who is knowledgeable about your topic, and ask permission to
interview him or her and to record the interview. After the interview, listen to your questions,

tone, and interview style. Critique your questions and the answers your respondent provided.
Who did the most talking during the interview? Did your questions elicit the responses you
expected? How could you revise your questions to guide the respondant to provide the information you were seeking?
2. Pick a busy place at a nearby park or shopping mall to practice your observation skills. Assume
the role of a nonparticipant observer to record the events that occur in your setting. Select a
place to sit where you can see and hear interactions between individuals. Are there patterns
of activities that are repetitive? After observing the pattern several times, can you close your
eyes and describe it to someone else? Next, write a “thick description” of the setting. Be sure
to include the colors, smells, and sounds that are occurring around you. Try to avoid making
judgments about the intentions, reasons, feelings, or emotions that you witness. Instead, simply
describe what is occurring. For example, instead of saying “the people are happy and enjoying
the beautiful day,” explain what they are doing or saying and how they are behaving that leads
you to believe they are “happy” and “enjoying” themselves. Describe their facial expressions,
how they walk, and what they are s­ aying to each other. Let your reader make the judgment
from the descriptions you provide.

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In-Class Group Exercises
1. Transcribe the interview that you recorded in #2 in the “Related Assignments” section above,
and bring two copies of the transcript and two yellow highlighting markers to your research
methods class. Ask the person beside you to read the interview transcript and highlight parts of
the respondents’ answer that pertain to the topic you were discussing. You do the same with the

second transcript. Still working separately, both you and your partner review the transcript
again and write a word or short phrase in the margin that describes the main point or subtopic
of each highlighted section. Then, make a list of these categories or open codes, and compare
your list with your partners. How many similarities did you find? Discuss any differences in
the highlighted sections and codes, and come to an agreement about the best descriptors for
each highlighted sections. Review the transcript once more to be sure that you have highlighted
and coded every phrase or sentence that has meaning in the context of your interview. You now
have a working list of key ideas or categories that your respondent perceived was most relevant
for the topic you discussed.
2. For the course instructor: Take a class field trip to a busy place in the student union on your
campus to make a group observation. Situate class members in different locations around
the area being sure that everyone is viewing the same central location but from different
viewpoints. During the next 15 minutes, ask each student to describe the setting from his or
her viewpoint, and then return to your classroom. In the classroom, ask students to spend the
next 10 to 15 minutes writing a paragraph describing their observations at the student union.


Questions for students: What was the purpose of the activities in the setting? What patterns,
meanings, or interpretations can be made about the activities in the student union? Working
in groups of three or four, compare paragraphs. What similarities and differences did the
observers in your group record? What meaning or interpretations did individual observers
give to their observations? Did everyone in your group agree on the nature and purpose of the
activities in the union?

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9

Other Research
Approaches

“Athletes live a life quite contrary to the precepts of hygiene, and I regard their mode of living
as a regime far more favorable to illness than to health”—Galen (Philosopher, 200–129 bc)

chapter outline
Historical and Philosophical Research
Historical Inquiry
Philosophical Research
Epidemiology Research
Descriptive Designs
Analytic Designs

Single-Subject Design Research
Single Baseline and
Reversal Designs
Multiple Baseline Designs
Meta-Analysis

Chapter Objectives
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
1. Identify alternative research designs that have been performed in kinesiology and healthrelated sciences.
2. Describe the general tenets of historical and philosophical research designs.
3. Explain the similarities and differences between experimental and epidemiological research.
4. Compare and contrast types of single-subject design research.
5. Explain the concept of effect size in relation to meta-analysis.

n To this point, we have described methods of research that 21st century researchers within ­kinesiology

and the health sciences use most frequently. Visit any exercise physiology or biomechanics laboratory,
and you will likely find the researchers there actively recruiting and testing participants to examine
the effectiveness of an intervention or comparing groups of similar individuals on some health-related
measure. Although researchers commonly use experimental and descriptive techniques, other types of
research also provide valuable information about human health and movement. These include historical and philosophical, epidemiology, single-subject, and meta-analysis research. Although the methods
vary dramatically, all serve to answer important questions, involve logical research designs with systematic data collection, and represent valid areas of inquiry.

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Historical and Philosophical Research
As you can see from the quote from the Roman philosopher Galen at the beginning of the chapter,
our notions of the role of physical activity and athletics to general health have evolved drastically over
time. Another point you might garner from this quote is that historical and philosophical research may
have common elements—you cannot understand the philosophies of an ancient Greek without examining historical context. However, historical and philosophical researches remain distinct lines of inquiry
used to solve different types of problems in kinesiology and health.

Historical Inquiry
Those who perform historical research delve into the past with two purposes. First, they attempt to capture the thoughts and attitudes about health and physical activity during different periods in recorded
history. This research leads us to the origins of the study of kinesiology and other health-related sciences and helps us understand why certain practices or belief systems came into being. Through this
research, historians can uncover the prevailing viewpoints and perspectives of people during different
eras. A common saying among sport historians is that sport is a microcosm of society. This suggests
that studying sport within a given culture can provide valuable insights into the values, morals, and
beliefs of persons living within that culture. Of course, good historians always remember that they

interpret historical artifacts, such as books, artwork, or tools, using their own frame of reference. That
is, they see the past through modern eyes.
A second purpose of historical research is to provide a framework for understanding issues and attitudes about health in the present by looking at the past. That is, the study of history provides historical
context for our current values, morals, and beliefs and helps us understand where health-related policies and laws come from. Further, it can help us avoid problems encountered in the past. Were certain
past cultures or societies organized such that they facilitated the spread of disease? Alternatively, how
did others slow disease transmission and deal with other health-related issues? For example, politicians often discuss the virtues of globalization in a positive sense, but throughout history, this spread
of goods, capital, information, and people has also been accompanied by the spread of devastating
diseases, such as measles, venereal diseases, or tuberculosis, or, more recently, West Nile virus or
H1N1 (“swine flu”), or HIV/AIDS. Historians play a role in understanding the antecedents of disease
transmission during earlier time periods.
In 1903, J.B. Bury famously proclaimed, “History is a science, no less and no more…history is
not a branch of literature” in his inaugural speech as the Regius Professor of Modern History at the
Divinity School in Cambridge, England.1 Bury made the point that historical research should be
approached as a science, and historians must apply scientific rigor to their methods of data collection.
As with experimental and descriptive research, specific methods of data
(or, as historians refer to it, evidence) collection and analysis should be
Evidence  Historical data or
artifacts
used that result in the best possible interpretation of the results. Historians
note that, like other areas of inquiry, they have to start with a question (see
Special Interest Box 9.1). Simply recording facts from earlier times is not historical research—the
researcher starts with a question and then designs a method for answering that question. As part of
this process, historians gather evidence, just as other types of scientists do.
Historians collect evidence from a variety of sources. Primary sources
Primary Sources  First hand
evidence from the time under
come from the time under study, including original books or writings, as well
question, such as photographs,
as physical evidence such as tools or medical equipment. If a researcher’s
journals, and official records

interests lie in recent history, then people can provide primary sources of
information, through personal interviews or recorded descriptions of events.
When possible, researchers should use primary sources. The ­reasoning is

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S pec i a l Interest B o x 9 . 1
Developing Historical Research: Asking the Question
Consider the following example:
Steve grew up near Cooperstown, NY, had visited the Baseball Hall of Fame many times,
and had always found the history of baseball fascinating. He thought it would be a great
idea to research baseball in the 1950s, since his favorite players were Mickey Mantle and
Yogi Berra. While home for winter break, he went back to the Baseball Hall of Fame
and studied the archives for information about this time period. He went through some
artifacts and developed a 10-page narrative that described this time period. His History
of Sport professor, after reading the report, suggested he begin again, stating “Your
research has to start with a question. Find the question!”
What is wrong with Steve’s approach to historical research? As we have discussed throughout the book, research involves asking a specific question and then gathering data in an
attempt to answer that question. This is precisely what Steve is missing: a question to drive
his research. Steve lets easily accessible data drive his research rather than letting his question
drive his data collection! How can Steve rectify this situation?
Steve spent some time reading newspaper articles from the 1950s. He recognized that
two big events made a big impact on baseball around that time period. The first was

the end of World War II, and the second was the introduction of television to American
homes. He decided to focus on the later point and started to develop his question. He
asked “Did widespread television ownership and mass marketing on TV change professional baseball from sport to commodity”?
Now that Steve has a question, he can move on to data collection, and it's clear he will
need to go beyond the Baseball Hall of Fame to collect data.

similar to that of using primary sources in literature reviews (see Chapter 3) because they reflect a
first-person glimpse into the time or event under study rather than someone else’s reinterpretation of
that event. Historians can find primary evidence in places like archives, libraries, public holdings, or
collections. For example, researchers interested in health and medical history could start their search at
a place like the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, “the birthplace of American medicine,” which
is home to both the Mütter Museum and the Historical Medical Library. The Internet is invaluable for
determining where primary sources of evidence exist.
Material culture in the form of historical artifacts can also be primary sources. In these instances,
the artifacts are objects created in the period under study. For example, the cigar boxes seen in Figure
9.1 (from the John and Carolyn Grossman Collection) depict (A) women
involved in recreational sport and (B) sporty girls smoking cigars. Keeping
Researchers should confirm
in mind the historical context with the United States at this time—during
that historical artifacts are both
authentic and credible before
the late 1800s, the popularity of light physical activity for women came into
using them to address the
vogue—these artifacts provide evidence of several prevailing notions of the
research question.
day. First, participation in recreational activities for college women was
seen as positive as long as the women remained feminine and the exercise
was not strenuous.2 Second, smoking was a favorable choice for “sporty
Secondary Sources Evidence
based on primary resources,

girls.” Certainly, these attitudes have changed since those times! Compare
such as books, magazines, and
primary to secondary sources of evidence. Secondary sources ­provide
journal articles
­information about history from someone who did not witness it, but (like a

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■■Figure 9.1  Primary sources of historical data from cigar boxes in
the 1800s depicting (A) Vassar girls and (B) sporty girls.

historian) gathered ­evidence about events. Encyclopedias and other Web-based information databases
have entries that summarize multiple sources to provide an overview of historical events. Newspapers
can also be secondary sources because they may reflect journalists’ interpretations or recounting of
events (i.e., describing others recollections of events) rather than the events themselves. In certain circumstances, newspapers can be primary sources, if the written article contains the authors’ first-person
account of an event. Historians often use secondary sources, but do so with caution—they must be
sure to take into account any subjective biases that the authors may have had in creating the secondary
source.
A good example of bias within newspaper journalism occurred during the 1928 Olympic games,
when the International Olympic Committee first allowed women to participate in the modern Olympic
games. Strong opposition to women’s participation came from multiple sources (including the founder
of the modern Olympics, Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin), including many sportscasters of the time.
Controversy ensued after the 800-m run, where several women “collapsed” after the race. Newspaper

accounts at the time suggested that not only women were unable to run such distances but that women’s reproductive health would suffer for doing so. In the New York Times, one reporter said “ even
this distance makes too great a call on feminine strength”. Similar stories in the world press created
controversy and ultimately led to limiting the distances women were allowed to run in the games for

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the next 60 years. Later that century, historian Lynne Emory determined from primary sources of
­evidence that all of the women finished the race. Further, the “collapses” were racers lying down on
the ground disappointed and winded after the race (rather than a mass display of exercise-induced
cardiorespiratory failure). Had historians relied on the reporting of the event in newspapers from the
time, they would have had an entirely different (and incorrect) conception of the event.
After historians begin to collect primary sources of evidence related to their question, they begin the
process of external and internal criticism, which involves looking critically at the evidence to check its
validity. A historian uses external criticism to establish the authenticity or legitimacy of the evidence.
In short, is the evidence real or has it been forged or altered? This can be done through many different
means, such as carbon dating with ancient artifacts, a comparison of signatures or handwriting, or even
checking the consistency of writing style and language use. Once the historian establishes authenticity,
the process of internal criticism begins. Internal criticism involves the determination of credibility of the
evidence. Is a piece of evidence consistent with other pieces of evidence and what is known about the
time period? Historians must also be aware of the context under which the evidence came into being.
The final part of historical research is piecing together the evidence to create a “story” that provides the
best possible answer to the original question.

4 Check Your Understanding
1. What makes historical inquiry “research”?
2. Compare and contrast external and internal criticism.
3. What is “evidence” for a scientist interested in historical research?
4. What is the difference between primary and secondary sources in historical research?

Philosophical Research
Another type of research that is sometimes associated with historical research is philosophical
research. At first glance, philosophical research seems to be the antithesis of experimental research.
Stemming from the ancient Greek words “phileo,” which means “love,” and “sophia,” meant “wisdom”
(love of knowledge), philosophy entails a scholarly pursuit of the nature and meaning of knowledge,
existence, morals, and reality. However, unlike experimental research, the philosopher does not physically test anything and quantitatively assess the results to determine causation. Rather, philosophers
look to understand meanings through reflection, which is the process of actively thinking through a
problem using logic and reason to explore it.
Philosophers do not gather “data” per se, nor do they use statistics to provide objective interpretations of results. A novice empirical researcher may debate the value of philosophical research in
kinesiology and health sciences and then ultimately realize that the debate itself was philosophical
research! However, Kretchmar4 argues that in fact, philosophical and empirical research both involve
the search for knowledge and differ primarily in how that search is undertaken, as the primary tool of
philosophical research is reflection.
In addition, we can trace much of what we know empirically to basic philosophical points of view,
which suggest certain questions are important to pursue. In fact, health professions in general owe
their existence to the philosophical position that health is important to human existence. Different
philosophies guide the study of health and disease as well as their treatment. For example, in Chapter
5, we discussed ethics in human research, and one of the primary principles is that the researcher must
put the safety and protection of human participants above all else. This is a philosophical position that
guides the ways in which we can study human beings, by positing that the benefits to humans must
outweigh the risks (beneficence). The guidelines put forth in the Belmont report that guide the ethical
treatment of human beings were developed through p­ hilosophical research and debate by a group of

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individuals with diverse backgrounds such as medicine, law, and bioethics and provide a clear set of
rules for empirical researchers to follow.
The process of performing philosophical research entails a general, three-step process designed to
allow for systematic reflection4:
1. Developing a thesis. This is similar to creating a hypothesis in empirical research.
2. Clarify the problem.
3. Search for arguments.
Two common ways in which researchers analyze philosophical problems
are inductive and deductive reasoning. In general, reasoning is the process
Inductive Reasoning 
of forming conclusions or inferences based on premises or facts. Inductive
Deriving general conclusions
reasoning is reasoning that goes from specific to general. That is, it is the
from specific observations
process of building theories based on a small number of specific observations or examples. A clinical example of inductive reasoning illustrates the
process well; clinicians examine a series of symptoms (small set of specific facts) in an attempt to
determine a general diagnosis of injury or disease. In the sport sciences, a philosopher may be interested
in trying to formalize the definition of “sport” in an attempt to decide if cheering is a sport (a question
relevant to institutions trying to comply with Title IV in the United States). The process of inductive
reasoning involves examining a number of activities considered “sports” (e.g., soccer, tennis, rowing),
examining characteristics of these activities (e.g., elements of competition, use of physical or cognitive
skill), and then making a general conclusion about what a sport is. In philosophical research, a scientist

begins this process by looking at observations to see if common principles emerge.
Just as inductive reasoning could be thought of as a bottom-up approach,
deductive reasoning could be described as a top-down approach. In this
Deductive Reasoning 
Reasoning from a general theory
form of reasoning, the scientist starts with a theory or principle and uses
to derive expected outcomes
that to formulate a set of expected outcomes or observations. Again, in a
clinical example of deductive reasoning, a clinician starts with the premise
that a patient has a particular condition or disease and then looks for specific symptoms to confirm that.
In our sport example, the philosopher would start with the premise of what sport is and then evaluate
whether an activity such as cheerleading meets that definition.
An excellent example of philosophical research (with a strong historical base) is Hwang and
Kretchmar’s 2012 paper entitled “Aristotle’s golden mean: Its implications for the doping debate.”5
The basis for the research is the ongoing, still relevant debate on the ethics and morals of drug use as
performance enhancers in sport, which, at the philosophical level, is an open question. The authors
attempt to reframe the question in light of Aristotle’s golden mean:
Aristotle argues that we act from three attitudes: from the mean (or average), from excess, and
from deficiency. Two of them, behaving from excess and deficiency, are vices, while acting at the
mean is a virtue. He suggests that we apply this principle not only generally but also to particular cases including those involving some risk to the actor. In dangerous situations, we should
act courageously because this is the mean between cowardice and rashness… Based on these
notions…the golden mean itself is neither extreme nor deficient. But neither is it unrelated to the
indefensible poles of behavior on each side. Thus, virtue, as understood in relationship to the
golden mean is a “middling disposition” in human behavior.
The authors reflect on this position and provide a sophisticated philosophical argument too intricate
and detailed to recount here (but definitely worth a read). They ultimately conclude that, in keeping
with the golden mean, a doping ban follows to reason.
Accordingly, in our rough and ready world of contemporary big-time sport, the better part
of reason suggests that the bans on performance enhancing pharmaceuticals be retained and
enforced. However, because the wisdom of this decision is contingent on the variable nature of

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